China's alternative to US tariffs - Companies are bypassing them thanks to molten steel!
Chinese steelmakers are circumventing tariffs in countries like Indonesia and Turkey by exporting semi-finished products, a tactic that undermines barriers against a flow of cheap Chinese metals and is raising concerns in Beijing about the rise of lower-value exports.
Record steel exports from the world's largest producer have sparked a global protectionist backlash, with 38 anti-dumping investigations by various countries since January last year. Major trading partners Vietnam and South Korea have imposed tariffs, arguing that domestic producers are being hurt by cheap Chinese steel.
In response, Chinese exporters are turning to molten steel, semi-finished steel ingots, which typically face fewer tariffs. Exports between January and May were three times higher than a year earlier at a record 4.72 million metric tons, or nearly 10% of all steel exports during the same period, customs data showed.
Chinese exporters must find every opportunity to sell products that are constrained on all sides by tariffs and weak domestic demand, a trend that began last fall. The top five export destinations for rebar are Indonesia, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Italy and Turkey, according to customs data. Indonesia, Turkey and Saudi Arabia have tariffs on some finished steel products, but none on basic steel.
Other major export destinations for finished steel, including South Korea or Vietnam, similarly have no tariffs on steel scrap, which is processed into finished products and then used in construction and manufacturing.
This relative lack of trade barriers for raw steel versus finished steel has helped fuel rapid export growth. Some of this demand comes from overseas shipping, they added, with countries in Southeast Asia importing Chinese steel, processing it and then re-exporting it to Europe and the US.
President Donald Trump's 50% tariffs on steel imports have disrupted parts of the foreign shipping trade, making it much less profitable for countries to ship to the United States.
Underlying the push for exports is a weak Chinese economy and a damaged property sector unable to absorb the vast amount of steel produced by a sector that has been playing with production cuts for months.
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